I think the prose is lovely and I think it flowed nicely. Charlotte spent the first part of her journey on the ship being a moderatel  insufferable obtuse prim girl and refusing to believe things outright said. She is constantly given a pass while folks try to help her beyond what she probably deserves. She was an ally to no one in the begining except the white patriarchy. Felt to me like a case of leopards eating her face eventually. Then she finds her true purpose at the very end of the book,

when her family rejects her for being different and traumatized.  They ignore that anything like that could happen to her and she can't tolerate to be a stuffy locked up rich girl, she escapes and goes off to be a sea faring sailor.